STUDYING NEURAL PATTERNS OF THE ATTENTION PROCESS USING EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS (ERP) IN HEALTHY MOBILE PARTICIPANTS IN A VR ENVIRONMENT – A PILOT STUDY

Traditional EEG paradigms using standard 2D computer displays and minimal movement limit the ecological validity of findings. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate neural activity patterns during an attention task using EEG measurements in a virtual reality (VR) environment under conditions approximating natural settings while controlling for confounding factors. 20 young, healthy participants completed a visual oddball task in VR, responding to oval-shaped targets while ignoring angular-shaped standard 3D figures that appeared in front of them. The VR environment was a corridor through which participants moved. To simulate real-world movements such as sitting down, obstacles were placed intermittently at head height in two experimental conditions, requiring participants to duck to pass through. We created five conditions to fully evaluate the studied ERPs during movement in VR: (1) standing in front of the static and (2) moving corridor, (3) walking through the corridor without ducking, (4) standing while the corridor moved and ducking at obstacles, and (5) walking through the corridor and ducking at obstacles. Preliminary results showed a clear, distinct P3 waveform, an attention-related ERP, peaking around 400-500 ms post-stimulus onset in all conditions. It was comparable between static and movement-intensive naturalistic settings. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that P3 amplitude did not differ significantly across conditions. Thus, walking and ducking in a plain environment doesn’t interfere with the categorization of the incoming stimuli in a simple oddball task. This study enhances understanding of brain function under natural conditions and contributes to the development of new neuroscientific paradigms.